Volvo Will Triple BEV Production at Belgium Plant

Volvo says it will triple its output of battery electric vehicles at its Belgium plant by 2022 to meet accelerating consumer demand.

The plant in Ghent is responding to strong growth in demand for the company’s Recharge all-electric models. The share of Recharge cars as a percentage of total sales more than doubled in 2020 compared with 2019.

This factory is preparing to take on a second BEV Volvo model, based on the CMA modular vehicle architecture, planned for production later this year. It already builds the XC40 Recharge, the company’s first BEV, as well as plug-in hybrid versions of the XC40.

Volvo produced 6,604 BEVs and 36,905 PHEVs in 2020. The Ghent plant built a total of 194,890 vehicles last year.

While Ghent is the first of Volvo’s global manufacturing network to start building BEVs, the company says it also has plans to increase electric car manufacturing capacity at its other facilities serving a variety of markets.

Last month, Volvo announced it will assemble electric motors at its powertrain plant in Skövde, Sweden, and plans to establish complete in-house e-motor production by the middle of the decade.

Javier Varela, head of global industrial operations and quality at Volvo, says: “Our future is electric and customers clearly like what they see from our Recharge cars. As we continue to electrify our lineup and boost our electric production capacity, Ghent is a real trailblazer for our global manufacturing network.”